He had me at “trout”. When I was “younger” and before my beloved Finn was in the picture, I dated a man we’ll call Dave (since that was his name). Our compatibility in the kitchen was undeniable. I swooned over how confidently he navigated the spice aisle and his ability to deglaze a pan.

It’s nearly turkey time and the turkey you will eat this Thanksgiving is a very different bird than what the Pilgrims ate in 1620 or what your parents ate in 1950. The “super turkey” of today is a different breed and a dramatically different size. The turkey of 2013 grew up on a factory farm where the administering of antibiotics and the practice of selective breeding is rampant.

I remember Thanksgiving fondly, but not because of the food. My parents were practical people and when it came to Thanksgiving the food was practical too. There were no pinenuts in the stuffing, bacon in the Brussels sprouts or wine in the gravy. The cranberry sauce was from Ocean Spray. I can still see the circular imprints from the tin – the not so subtle evidence of its time in cramped quarters. The evidence was destroyed as it was crushed with a fork and shaken into the ceramic bowl. The Brussels sprouts were boiled in salt water and drained – never roasted. The potatoes were roasted. The skin was peeled off and they were placed around the bird – my Dad always referred to the turkey as “the bird”- and cooked for as long as the bird cooked. The stuffing was made from toasted bread with lots of melted butter, salt and pepper, oregano and thyme and definitely cooked inside the bird. (This was before any concern that sticking something inside raw poultry and eating it, might poison the family with salmonella.) ……..

There’s an entire sub section in Whole Food’s bulk food that’s devoted to premium priced “sprouted” food. There are $5 sprouted nut bars popping up in corner delis alongside the PopTarts and I was just sent a collection of sprouted pasta and cereals that are beautifully packaged with a tan and white palate and manufactured by a company that makes nothing but sprouted food.

I used to get a solid eight hours of sleep and would do everything in my power to protect this sacred practice. Then Finn came into my life and along with him, many months of five hours of sleep, maybe six. I got so accustomed to it that even after he starting sleeping through the night (his ten-month birthday present to me), I would wake at least twice, my body anticipating his cries, toss for fifteen minutes and go back to sleep – until he stirred my body from it’s poorly rested state at 6 am.

I used to have a lot of time for cooking. I would walk leisurely through the farmer’s market with only a faint notion of what I would cook for dinner, confident that inspiration would strike as I stood before a pile of eggplant or stared down an onion. How I long for those days. My goal now is to eat. And it has to taste good. And it still has to be made by me. If I can pack nutrients and taste into the food and cook it fast, I’m happy. So I was pretty psyched to find a recipe online that I altered and tweaked for Chia Almond Zucchini Coconut Muffins – my new go-to afternoon snack.

He stretched his arms up with great force, toward the muffin. He was not going to take no for an answer. I offered the apple and the cheese and the blueberries but got a flat rejection. I tried to reason, but try THAT with an 18 month old!

I was starting to see a pattern of he (and I) eating a few too many morning muffins (and the odd bagel), and I knew I needed to reverse course before it became entrenched. And we succeeded, pretty quickly.

Want to know the trick to eating less junk? Keep reading on the Attune Foods Blog, here.

As the leaves and the temperatures drop, I am eager again to turn on the stove, tie the food-stained apron around my waist and awake my cast-iron soup pot from hibernation. I was making squash soup other day, using my kitchen glove to roll the garlic cloves to loosen the skin and thought about how many tricks I’ve developed, modified and stolen, over the years. Here are 10 (actually 11) of the less commonly known ….

I think of tomatoes as the bridge food between summer and fall. Just when the summer fruit season in the Northeast is ending – the crowd of peaches is thinning at the farmers market and the blueberries have packed up, the most flavorful tomatoes are only just arriving and will be around for at least another month. And they only get better and better as they’ve had time to soak up the August rays.

The only issue I have with tomatoes is that like with many fruits, it can be impossible to tell what’s on the inside by looking at the outside. So I decided to do a test and see whether paying more really gets you more….

Here’s a radical idea: put some peanut butter and jam between two slices of bread and eat it. It’s delicious!

There was a time (112 years ago to be exact) when a PB&J sandwich did not exist. It was first written about in 1901 in The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics. The specific recommendation was to put “peanut paste, whatever brand you prefer, and currant or crab-apple jam” between three very thin layers of bread. Salt, sugar and fat all in one bite – who could resist.

I get really tired really fast of the same old stuff and so I often wish that someone would present me with the equivalent of the 1901 peanut butter and jam sandwich.

Read how I’ve found ways to get that “sandwich” on the Attune Food blog, here.

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